Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.

If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!

I'm quoting from another thread because the subject I'm introducing here is different.

Quote:

Mark Johnston wrote:

O-sensei looked like a pit-bull when he was younger (that is under 60), he must have worked out.

Quote:

Christopher Li wrote:

Sure, there's nothing wrong with it - it's just tricky to work with the internal stuff. Perhaps I should have said "it's tricky enough that I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who's really interested in Internal work" until they get to a certain point in their training.

Best,

Chris

Let me preface this by stating I agree with Chris completely. Having said that ...

I've been wondering lately about the body style of IP/aiki people.

In certain areas, a person's body is more of an inverted pyramid. A whole lot of upper body strength that is not proportional to the lower body. Pro weight lifters sometimes showcase this kind of body.

On the flip side, we hear about Chinese arts where it's supposed to be a pyramid, with the lower part of the body (legs mostly) which should be highly developed but not being proportional to the upper body.

Ueshiba's self portrait seems to take a third road. If we look at Ueshiba after his Daito ryu training, he portrayed himself as having muscles in the upper body with a large belly. I'd guess that his lower body (legs mostly) was just as developed.

If we look to the A-UN statues, we see something similar, except not as large a belly as Ueshiba portrayed. Ueshiba could have been portraying how his dantien felt relative to his body, thus giving him a larger belly in the painting.

Do we have a body that's sort of two pyramids, one upper, one lower, all connected by a large dantien? Two triangles, with tips touching and a circle connecting both?

Oh yeah! The ones at Horyuji. Those look particularly martial, although I am given to understand that there is no martial gravitas or character to the temple. There were a few buddhas at the Sanjusangendo in Kyoto who had some interesting body types.

Seems the choice of shape for the dou in most samurai armor -- barrel shaped vs. upside down pyramid -- says a lot, particular this type (i.e. nio-dou -- why aren't these the features of a muscular young stud if the armor is meant to project a sense of martial power on the battlefield?):